An artificial lawn is comprised of supple blades joined to a carpet itself layed on a filling.
All the difficulty resides:
a) during the laying of the lawn:
in mixing the sand and the granules as closely as possible to the carpet because the blades of lawn are flattened by the spreading of sand and granulate;
in distributing them as homogeneously as possible either first in their mixture and second on the surface of the carpet;
in treating the edges of the carpet that are difficult to access by basic mixing and distribution modules;
and this by successive layers and passages;
b) during the maintenance of lawn:
in mixing the mixture of sand and granules as closely as possible to the carpet while maintaining the aforementioned homogeneous mixture in its composition as well as in its spatial distribution;
in treating the edges of carpet;
and this, in both cases, without attacking or pulling the blades and without displacing the carpet.
No known device, based on brushes or prongs, meets these various criteria.
Indeed, known is:
the document FR2813491, which describes a machine for the maintenance of an artificial lawn comprising at least one device for combing the fibers, consistuted by combs or teeth, driven in rotation by a “motor, pulleys and belts” assembly;
the document EP1356720, which describes an apparatus for the maintenance of a lawn comprising a central part and two lateral extensions deployable so as to work equally on a reduced surface or on an extended surface, the aforementioned parts being carriers of brush sets.
In the first document, the teeth are driven in rotation, in the manner as a lawn dethatcher, having major consequences: deterioration and pulling of the blades, displacement and abrasion of the carpet, wear and fouling of the belts, maintenance of the pulleys and of the engine.
In the second document, the edges of the field are not treated since the lateral extensions, which are simple expansion modules, do not have features provided for this purpose